This Sinkhole Is Finally Getting Fixed Because Residents Planted Tomatoes In It

This is very clever! How far would you go to get your neighborhood roads fixed?

They say that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. But the residents of Toronto had another idea when it came to getting a lingering sinkhole in their city fixed. The residents of Poplar Plains Road has become frustrated. They’d repeatedly called city officials, asking them to repair the gaping hole, all to no avail. So they decided to get the officials’ attention another way.

The residents planted tomatoes in the sinkhole, and after a story about the unconventional garden aired on CityNews, the City of Toronto finally sent crews to begin work on repairing the sinkhole. Before the city ultimately intervened, residents took turns tending to the blossoming tomatoes. Check out these photos of the plants, posted to Twitter by CityNews reporter Brandon Rowe:

No this isn’t a community garden! Some fed up residents in the Summerhill area planted tomatoes in this sinkhole as they wait for the city to fix it. One woman tells me that the crater has been on Poplar Plains Cres. for months now. @CityNewspic.twitter.com/bXiVMhGdrF

“Someone probably had the impetus to do it, but I think it’s like community property now. We all sort of take care of them,” resident Bryan Link explained on “As It Happens” on CBC. “It’s sort of, like, become the community garden.”

Now that the sinkhole is under repair, the tomatoes have been relocated to an actual community garden.

“We have successfully begun the process of transferring the tomatoes to a community garden so they will survive,” Toronto’s mayor John Tory told CityNews. “And the pothole will be fixed.”

Potholes can certainly pose a major inconvenience — as well a danger — to motorists and pedestrians alike. They also stand out as eyesores. Which is why this is not the first time frustrated community members have taken it upon themselves to fill unfixed potholes in their cities with something beautiful. In Chicago, Jim Bachor filled his city’s potholes with mosaic art. Check out one of his designs on Instagram: